Friday, September 23, 2011

September so Far…

This poor, deprived blog. I think about her a lot. I do. But by the time children are both in bed, kitchen is cleaned, the living room is detoxified, and my rear hits the computer chair, a cohesive thought that is even partially interesting is right above impossible. I think about lots of stuff to blog about as the day occurs, and then never blog about it and have complete writer's block when I do sit down to write. Are you thoroughly confused yet? There will be a test.

Let me look through my pictures and throw them on here to let you know what's been going on around here.

Well, first of all, the crafty gene that has been suppressed for the past (Hm…how old is Hannah?) 10 1/2 months emerged the other day. I will give credit where it’s due and say that Pinterest has rekindled my love for all things crafty and food made at home. (Because let’s face it. The reason my pants are still snug is because fast food restaurants have been my BFF for a while. Sad, sad.)

So I saw a tut (isn’t that a funny word? for all of you peeps who don’t know the lingo, that’s “tutorial” for short. Go ahead. Use it in a sentence. Yeah, it’s okay to laugh a little when you say it.) on how to make a yarn wreath on Pinterest; the original tut (teeheehee) said it would take about an hour and a half total to make. Well, that woman must have some impressive yarn wrapping skills. It took me 4 full hours to wrap the wreath and make and glue the fabric flowers. But I’m in love with it, and it fits perfectly with my fall decor.

I must have been feeling really spunky because the next day I threw this together. (And this seriously took 30 minutes total. So easy!)

I just took two grapevine wreaths, one slightly smaller than the first, (so that it fits inside the larger one) and used floral wire to combine them into one piece. Then I used deco mesh (my new favorite item) and bunched it in sections, starting with the color brown. I fastened each loop with floral wire to the grapevine wreath, bunched of the next section and bunched it. I rotated the location of each “bunch” from the smaller “inside” wreath to the larger “outside” wreath. I went in and out until a full circle was made with the brown. I didn’t cut it until the very last piece of brown was finished. (In other words, all that brown is one long piece, secured with floral wire at different increments). Then I did the same thing with the orange, filling in the gaps where the brown had not gone. After that, I stuck in some filler from an old wreath I took apart. Since I used grapevine wreaths I already had on hand and picks from an old wreath, my grand total was $9 for the mesh at JoAnns. Woo hoo! (I know that tutorial is about as clear as Mississippi mud. Pictures would have really helped huh?)

Then I whipped this one together for my aunt Deda, fellow lover of wreaths:

Speaking of my Deda, we took a little roadtrip to visit her and Pop the other day. The kids EAT UP being with their relatives!

See that blue shirt Drew is sporting? It’s from this year’s Mother’s Day Out program that he attends for 2 1/2 hours every Thursday. Only ours is now covered in grease stains because Drew helped change the oil in the truck while wearing it. We’re apparently getting our $6 worth out of the shirt. Here he is on the second week of school because this poor child’s mama forgot to take his picture on the first week. And he wanted me to take a picture of his “pack pack.” Unfortunately, he had a rough first 2 weeks back. Phrases used to describe him were: “the most active kid I’ve ever seen,” "complete boy," “hates to sit still,” and “loves to climb, jump, and run.” Yes, that about sums him up. But on week three they said he was doing much better in the classroom environment. Whew…bribery (I mean, positive reinforcement) is working slowly, but surely.

And as for Little Miss, look who’s pulling up on whatever she can!

This week she attempted “bye bye” several times and had a couple of “firsts”: got told “no” and cried profusely for the first time, and went from a crawling to sitting position by herself for the first time, and Drew fed her for the first time (what a mess). Woo hoo! Go Han!

(On a side note, it’s so funny to note the extreme differences between my two children. Hannah is mild mannered and tender-hearted while Drew is a ball of energy and sometimes tough to get through to. Drew was practically running by 10 months and Hannah has just mastered crawling. Drew was into EVERYTHING by now. Hannah is content to hang out with one plastic toy. So funny!